Pig farmers fear they will have to slaughter animals

Pig farmers fear they will soon have to start killing their animals due to a carbon dioxide shortage in slaughterhouses caused by soaring gas prices.

CO2 is widely used in the food industry, including for stunning animals in slaughterhouses prior to slaughter.

But some CO2 suppliers have halted production due to rising energy costs, creating a huge backlog of pigs that will have to be killed at some point.

A food and drink trade body says the UK may need to subsidize CO2 production.

Farmer Kate Morgan told the BBC on Monday that “thousands of pigs are waiting on the farms. If we can’t kill our pigs in a slaughterhouse, we will unfortunately resort to killing them on the farms.”

Carbon dioxide used by the meat industry is a by-product of the production of fertilizers. Gas is also used to keep food fresher as well as in dry ice and carbonated drinks.

CF Industries, the US-based company that produces around 60% of the UK’s food-grade CO2, has suspended production at two UK fertilizer factories. The Norwegian company Yara has also cut production at several European factories.

‘Pretty terrible’

Ms Morgan, who runs a pig farm near Driffield, East Yorkshire, told BBC 5 Live’s Wake up to Money program that the industry situation was already “quite dire” due to shortages of workforce. Now, meat shortages in supermarkets are a real possibility, she said.

“The slaughterhouses have about a week’s supply of gas. It’s a chain: we constantly have pigs coming out of the breeding herd and having to go into the houses. These houses must be emptied.

His farm sends about 1,500 pigs every week to slaughterhouses.

Killing her own animals is not something she can bear to think about. “I can’t even begin to think how we would do it. I don’t want to put the people who work for us in this situation,” Ms. Morgan said.

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On-farm slaughter means meat is not something that could enter the food supply chain. “It would be a waste,” she said.

It is estimated that around 100,000 pigs remain on farms that would otherwise have been sent for slaughter as the backlog started to build up weeks ago due to understaffing.

Andrew Saunders, director of the UK’s largest pork producer Pilgrims Pride, said there was no alternative to CO2 stunning. “It’s an essential part of the process,” he told the BBC.

Mr Saunders, also chairman of the British Meat Processor Association, said: “80% of pigs in the UK are slaughtered in around 10 slaughterhouses, and these slaughterhouses all use CO2 stunning systems. We already face challenges in keeping these slaughterhouses operational – some labor shortages in these factories.

CO2 subsidies

He said pigs can only be kept on farms “for a very short time. They exceed their target slaughter weight, so they are not suitable for the size of the packages we have for our customers.”

He added: “We hope the government can turn around and step in to get these CO2 factories back up and running. The factories in question provide around 60% of all UK needs and something is needed here to get that started. fast enough. “

However, the pork industry is not the only one facing problems. On Monday, the Food and Beverage Federation (FDF) warned that the entire sector was facing disruption.

In a letter to Environment Secretary George Eustice, FDF chief executive Ian Wright said: disruptions in CO2 supply.

“Across the industry there is a common view that the situation is getting worse with little prospect of further CO2 supply unless the UK government steps in.”

If ministers are considering financial aid to support the energy sector, Mr Wright said that “any subsidies made available should also be taken into account for fertilizer manufacturers to ensure that there are there is no further deterioration in the UK food and drink supply, and that production can be restored “.

There are fears that food and drink shortages are starting to appear on supermarket shelves, with the problem set to worsen as Christmas approaches without action.

Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland, said his supermarket was building up inventory and there was no immediate shortage problem, he told the BBC the CO2 situation needed to be addressed quickly.

“What shocked me is that 60% of [CO2] production is concentrated in two factories, both owned by a foreign company.

“This is something that is clearly critical to national security – not just food but health care as well. So it seems quite perplexed whether this is at the whim of a private company in terms of profitability or not and therefore of production or not. “

The British Soft Drinks Association has said that if manufacturers cannot source CO2, “once their reserves are exhausted, production of some products will have to cease.”

Tony Will, chief executive of CF Industries, has held talks with the government about production at its two fertilizer plants, but the outcome is unclear.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng tweeted that he had met Mr Will and “discussed the pressures the company faces and explored possible avenues to secure vital supplies, including for our food and energy industries. “.

Wholesale gas prices have jumped 250% since January, rising 70% since August alone, prompting calls for industry support and the collapse of some small energy companies.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is in New York for a United Nations General Assembly meeting, said the wholesale price problem was “temporary”.

He added that he was “very confident” in UK supply chains and that market forces would have to be “very, very quick” to resolve the issues, but the government would help where it could. .

A government statement said: “We continue to monitor supplies in critical sectors and are in regular contact with industry on their CO2 supplies.

“The UK benefits from a diverse range of gas supply sources and we have sufficient capacity to more than meet demand. We do not expect gas supply emergencies this winter.”